The next black United States senator, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, took office in 1967. He was the first African American to be elected by popular vote after the ratification in 1913 of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, rather than to be elected by a state legislature.[1] The Seventeenth Amendment established direct election of United States senators by popular vote.

Carol Moseley Braun and Barack Obama were both elected by the voters of Illinois, entering the Senate in 1993 and 2005, respectively.[1] Carol Moseley Braun is the first African-American woman to be elected - or appointed - to the Senate after the ratification in 1920 of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Nineteenth Amendment prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. While serving in the Senate, Obama became the first African American to be elected to the office of president of the United States.[5]Roland Burris, also an African American, was appointed to fill the remainder of the Senate term of Obama.[6]

After Obama's election, the next two black senators, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Mo Cowan of Massachusetts, were both appointed by governors to fill the terms of Jim DeMint and John Kerry, respectively, who had resigned their positions.[1] On October 16, 2013, citizens of New Jersey elected Cory Booker in a special election to fill the seat of the late senator Frank R. Lautenberg.[7] Sworn into office on October 31, 2013, he is the first African-American senator to be elected since Barack Obama in 2004 and the first to represent the state of New Jersey, later securing a full 6-year term in the 2014 mid-term elections. Senator Tim Scott retained his seat in a special election in 2014, also securing a full 6-year term in 2016. On January 3, 2017, senators Scott and Booker were joined in the Senate by Kamala Harris of California, who was elected on November 8, 2016.[8] Senator Harris is the second African-American woman to serve in the U.S. Senate. As of September 5, 2018, there have been 1,974 members of the United States Senate,[9] but only ten have been African American.[10][11]

^Retired from office. Elected to complete an unfinished term after Mississippi was readmitted to the Union on February 23, 1870. First African American to serve in the United States Senate and Congress. First African American to serve in Congress from Mississippi.[12]

^Retired from office. First African American to serve a full six-year term as a United States senator. The only Senator to be a former slave.[15]

^Appointed by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to fill vacancy caused by the resignation of John Kerry. Not a candidate during special election following his appointment. First African-American Senator appointed by an African-American Governor. The first African American to serve alongside another African-American Senator - Tim Scott.

"Kamala Harris's File". PolitiFact. Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2018. Harris, a Democrat, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016. She became California's attorney general in January 2011. She was the first woman and the first African-American to hold the office in California's history.

Weigel, David (January 9, 2018). "Democrats Add Harris, Booker to Senate Judiciary Committee". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 July 2018. The Senate Judiciary Committee will welcome its first African American members in this century after Democrats added Sens. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to the panel that handles judicial nominations and appointments to the Justice Department.

McPhate, Mike (September 29, 2016). "California Today: A Snooze of a Senate Race". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2018. The race to succeed Senator Barbara L. Boxer of California was supposed to be one of the marquee contests of the year ... It offers a window into the ethnic kaleidoscope that is California: Pitting a Latino, Representative Loretta Sanchez, against an African-American, Kamala Harris, the state attorney general.

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